Paper Authors

John Weese
Texas A&M University

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Benefits from Offerings to Non-Engineering or ET Majors:
Integrating Colleges of Engineering into Their Institutions

Abstract

Colleges of engineering are very strong academic/research organizations but they usually offer
courses only for their own majors. The sciences and mathematics typically offer extensive
courses for non-majors. Often, these are required courses for the non-majors and the aggregate
of the non-major courses may exceed those offered for their own undergraduates. The practice
of colleges of engineering not to offer courses for non-engineers isolates engineering and
deprives engineering colleges from allies in other colleges, cuts them off from sources of
students in the very groups engineering would like to entice, and misses the opportunity to
educate other majors about the contributions engineering has made and will make to society.
Instances of engineering college courses offered for non-majors are discussed and the
characteristics and topics for additional courses are presented.

Introduction and Motivation

In our country, where technology make access to information, data, statistics, and even opinions
readily available, our citizens need to know a great deal more about engineering and technology
so they can make intelligent decisions. These circumstances crop up everywhere and they are
inherently highly multidisciplinary in nature. Colleges of engineering and/or engineering
technology, herein after called E/ET colleges, are well-suited for the challenge to educate people
about technical issues but, unfortunately, E/ET colleges often offer courses only for their own
majors. This exclusivity precludes the access to very beneficial knowledge by individuals in
other majors and it also isolates E/ET colleges from the other colleges within their own
institutions. As a result, E/ET colleges need to take the initiative to introduce non-majors to the
principles of engineering and technology by developing appropriate courses

The construct of these potential courses is very important to bridge this gap. They must contain
sound technical principles, be objective and realistic, treat inherently interesting and timely
topics, instill a recognition of the quantitative nature of technology, contain good case studies,
provide hand-on experience if possible, and, most importantly, be well taught. Names for these
courses are important and in this paper, they’re called Engineering Insights or EI course for
short. An example course might be EI 101: Electric Energy Generation and Distribution.

From the exposure they receive through taking EI courses, graduates of liberal arts, business,
education and similar programs will better understand what will be involved to improve
infrastructure systems and they will be more likely to appreciate the time and investments that
are required. They will become skeptical of quick fixes, be able to spot unsound proposals, and
will realize the importance of seeking well-founded advice on technical matters. Upon taking EI
courses some students may find the E/ET fields so interesting that they switch to these curricula,